President's Attitude Trickles Down Ladder

ON THE JOB - WORKPLACE ISSUES

August 21, 1993|By William F. Cummings, Macon (Ga.) Telegraph

Dear Dr. C: Empowerment? Quit talking about it! Look, I cannot empower my people, because my boss does not empower me. It's that simple. If my boss is going to nitpick me to death, you'd better believe that I'm going to nitpick my people to death. If my boss holds me accountable for the inventory of pencils and pens in the office, I am going to hound my people for that same inventory.

Don't talk to us managers about empowerment. Talk to the top guys. No - better yet - talk to the very top guy. Empowerment is never going to work in any company until the president decides to sit down with his or her top people and mutually agree who is responsible for what.

Otherwise, whatever the top guy decides he wants to pick on this week gets picked on the next two months all down the organization. And by that time, he has changed his mind and he starts picking on something else.

What a way to run an organization!

Sincerely, Bubba

Dear Bubba: This time, you're on the money. The way in which the top guy handles empowerment sets the cultural tone for the whole organization. Many presidents do not realize what kind of shock waves their memos create. The head of the organization sets priorities, the minute that memo goes out.

If I am working on a project that is terribly important for our customers and I receive a memo from the president directing me to send in a budget report, what do you think I'm going to do?

If I have scheduled a meeting with my most important client and my boss sends me a memo requesting my presence at the home office, what do you think I am going to do?

All of us have to juggle our priorities; some presidents make it more difficult than others.

But what's a president to do? Most of them were either promoted to their jobs because they were on top of the details or because they founded the company.

How can a president suddenly divorce himself or herself from the nitty gritty details of the business - especially when he looks around and no one else is doing them?

Well, here are a few suggestions for the top guy in every organization: Ask your ''direct reports'' to pull the last 10 letters they wrote to their direct reports. List the topics of all the letters down the left-hand side of the page. In the first column next to each item, write in the name of the person who is responsible for performing that function. In the next column write the name of the manager who manages that person and in the last column write a number on a scale of one to 10: one being very little effect on our customer satisfaction and our bottom line. And 10 being extremely high effect on customer satisfaction and bottom line.

Now the president and each of the top managers must ask the following questions:

Was this item worth my memo? If it was, should it have focused on the individual item - the number of pens and pencils in our storeroom - or should it have been at a higher level, such as ''what kind if inventory control do we have in our company?''

Was this memo sent to my direct report or did I go around that manager to one of his or her people?

Compare the ratings that were given to all of these issues by the president with those that were given by the average of all the top managers.

The big picture: It's true that the details got you where you are today. But, Mr. or Mrs. President, I assure you that the details are no longer your job. Your job is now the big picture. You certainly think that you are helping the company by pointing out all of these tiny little failings because none of them seem tiny to you. But you are driving people crazy.